Beginnings 1832-1842

This period begins with the establishment of Waverly with a population of 200 (Kalfs 1976, p21) in 1832, and ends with the incorporation of Waverly in January 1842, with a population of 306 (up from 200 in 1830; FNB History,21), the Waverly Presbyterian Church was established.

Following the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which cleared the Shawnee Indians from the area, settlers had moved into what was to become Pike County which was formed in 1815 with a population of 4,153 from land taken from four existing counties (Beekman 2003, p1),. All Land west of the Scioto River was part of the Virginia Military District, set aside for Virginia's veterans of the Revolutionary War. By the Northwest Ordinance Congress had opened all land east of the Scioto for settlement (History of the Scioto Valley, P. 696).

When in 1829, the routes for the series of canals linking the Ohio River with Lake Erie to the north were being planned, a village to be called Uniontown was seen as an important port on the branch of canal system passing through Pike County. When residents seeking to establish a post office found that a post office of this name already existed in another Uniontown, the name was changed to Waverly at the suggestion of Capt. Francis Cleveland, resident engineer of the newly constructed canal, who was much interested in reading the Waverly Novels of Sir Walter Scott. The village of Waverly was established in 1832 and incorporated in January 1842. By 1860 the population had grown to 900 (Hoover p. ).

Waverly citizen and leading businessman James Emmitt, son of Geroge Emmitt, came to Pike County in 1816 at the age of ten, and worked for ten years as a farm laborer, woodcutter ad teamster. He saw canal construction as an economic opportunity, first turning his home into a boarding house for canal engineers. When the Waverly section was completed in 1832, he purchased canal boats to carry grain, built a large grain mill and whiskey distillery, and raised hogs on the grain mash left from the distilling process. Only when cholera broke out in 1852 did he respond to public outcry over the bad odor by moving the hog farm further away (Beekman 203 p.5). James emmitt died in 1894.

Following the first group of European immigrants to southern Ohio, among the traders, trappers, surveyors, and land developers, came families of Scottish, Irish and English descent from New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. Among these were many with Presbyterian traditions. They were attracted by stable conditions created by the Northwest Ordinance, and the Virginia Military Tract which extended from the Scioto River west to the Little Miami River.

A second wave of migrants came from Germany in the 1830's to the 1860's. They were seeking refuge from political persecution, and brought with them United Brethren, Evangelical, Reformed, Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions.

In 1821 settlers from the Calvinistic tradition formed the Chillicothe Presbytery, which covered an area of six counties including Adams, Brown, Fayette, Highland, Pike and Ross, plus the eastern parts of Clermont and Clinton counties. The first Presbyterian congregation in Pike County was established in Piketon in 1832, with the Reverend Gamaliel Beeman as stated supply pastor until 1838.

In 1841 the Reverend William Burton of the Piketon Presbyterian Church became interested in establishing a branch church in Waverly. As noted above, in the year 1842, the Waverly Presbyterian Church was established, with the Rev. Burton as stated supply pastor of both Piketon and Waverly churches. This action may have taken place at the meeting of the Chillicothe Presbytery at the Pisgah Church on April 5-6, 1842, when John Carolus, the first elder of the Waverly Church was listed as an elder commissioner. The first trustees were Carolus, John Howard and Robert Emmitt, brother of James Emmitt.

The property of In-Lot No. 110 on East North Street came into the possession of the church as follows. On July 4, 1842, John Carolus and his wife executed a deed for 5/6 of lots 109 and 110 to William Burton, Isaac Watts, Robert Emmitt and James Tomlinson. Emmitt then deeded his 1/6 interest to Thomas Davis. On August 23, 1843, Burton, Carolus, Howard, Watts, Davis and Tomlinson executed a general warrant deed to John Carolus, Isaac Watts, and James Tomlinson, Trustees of the First Presbyterian Society of Waverly, Pike County, Ohio for the property on which the original building and, remodeled in 1883, still stands.